VocabularySubject-Verb Agreement and

Verb Tense and Verb Form

Pasco-Hernando Community College

Tutorial Series

Vocabulary

These are the vocabulary words for this module. Read through carefully and print out if possible.  Don't be overwhelmed.  The information will be repeated throughout the module, and there will be practice exercises.

Vocabularysubject - the doer of the action or state of

being in a sentence or clause in a sentence.verb - when used with the term subject, verb

refers to the predicate in the sentence or clause in a sentence.

agreement - a term in grammar which refers to the consistency in gender, number, and person.

subject-verb agreement - the consistency in singular or plural (number) between the subject and predicate in a sentence or clause in a sentence: a singular noun must have a singular verb.

Vocabulary

singular nouns - nouns (person, place, thing, or idea) indicating only one, generally not ending in the letter s: ship (singular); ships (plural - more than one).

plural nouns - nouns (person, place, thing, or idea) indicating more than one, generally ending in the letter s: (ship (singular); ships (plural - more than one).  Irregular plural nouns: children, men, women, oxen, syllabi

Vocabularysingular verbs - action words or state of

being conveying action or state of being of one subject, generally ends in the letter -s in the present tense: She goes, He rides

plural verbs - action words or state of being conveying action of state of being of more than one subject, generally not ending in the letter -s in the present tense: They ride, They explore

Vocabularyprepositional phrases - a word group

beginning with a preposition (a word showing position) and an object: by the sea, in the house, under the tree.  Occasionally, a prepositional phrase is between a subject and verb in a sentence or clause in the sentence.

relative pronoun phrase - a word group beginning with a relative pronoun (such as who, whom, which, whichever, whose, that) such as who is in the dining room or that will be taken

Vocabularyindefinite pronoun - a pronoun (a word that

can take the place of a noun) which does not indicate whether it is singular or plural. Some are always singular such as each, either,

neither, and words that end in -body (anybody, somebody).

Some indefinite pronouns are always plural such as few, many, several, both.

VocabularyEither/or; Neither/nor - separately the words

either and neither are always singular.  When used with the words or or nor, the verb agrees with the part of the subject which is closest.

Some indefinite pronouns are based on context: all, any, none, most, some.  The number (singular or plural) depends upon what noun these words are referring to in the sentence.

Vocabularyverb tense - variations of verbs to indicate

time of action: past, present, future, progressive, and perfect

incorrect shifts in tense - where the tense in one part of the sentence does not reflect the literal time of the action in relation to the other part of the sentence

correct shifts in tense - where the tense in one part of the sentence reflects the literal time of the action in relation to the other part of the sentence

Vocabularyverb form - Verb form refers to the variety

of  a verb can be expressed:base form of verb – the simplest form of  a

verb: see, run, think the -s form of the verb – third person present

form – She reads present participle – the -ing form of a verb past form of the verb – the past tense the past participle – generally the same as the

past tense – the -ed form of the verb